Such a plough with a sliding skid is known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 4,583,785 (Breuer et.al). The known plough, with its plough body equipped with cutting tools, is guided along a plough guide and is connected by one foot piece each at both of its two ends to an exchangeable sliding skid. Here, each sliding skid has a guide shoe in which the foot piece is supported.
When the plough is in operation, the sliding skids slide with a sliding surface provided on their underside on a rail of the plough guide. The sliding skids are subjected to an especially high rate of abrasion/wear due to the weight of the plough and the high forces that must be transmitted from the sliding skids onto the rail during operation of the plough. For this reason, the sliding skids are releasably attached to the plough body so that worn sliding skids can be simply and rapidly replaced.
However, the replacement of worn sliding skids is associated with comparatively large amounts of effort and high costs. The sliding skids as a whole are comparatively complex components and are expensive to produce. Their replacement can take a relatively long time and during this time the plough is out of commission, meaning that no coal can be extracted during this period.